The return

11th - 18th June 2011! Watch this space...

Notes from New Somewhere - Road Trip!

Rather than just hop on a plane and head home, I left New York on a bus heading to Massachusetts, crying like a baby, my snotty face pressed up against the window to catch a last glimpse of the skyline. My last few days were fantastic, right down to having a long conversation with a random wierdo in Washington Square Park for an hour on my last night, a final trip to the ever wonderful lyric diner and drunken movies with Kassie. Now, things are moving at a very different speed - yesterday, I help Jen move out of her room post graduation (lucky for some) and tomorrow we're packing up Aurelia the trusty car and heading out on our 4500 mile roadtrip - to Alaska!

For the uninitiated, this is North America. I'm currently 150 miles north east of New York in Chicopee MA, having already navigated Connecticut - ok, the bus driver did, whatever. The plan is to head west, possibly with a stop off in Chicago, working our way through a number of states including the super-exciting Montana (no one's been there yet, perhaps with good reason) eventually stopping at Seattle so I can pretend I'm in an episode of Grey's Anatomy, and then heading north to Vancouver, up through Canada and eventually reaching our destination of Anchorage, AK. It's going to take about two weeks, with a mix of camping and motels, and I think it's going to be one of these crazy intense possibly life changing experiences. Especially if we get eaten by bears. I'll do my best to post on our progress, but I've no idea when we'll have internet again, so this may be goodbye til we make the west coast, by which point I will be fractionally older - though Jen assures me 22 is a total anticlimax. In any case, see you on the other side!

It's cheesy, but.... I'll always love you New York

I'll finish this properly later... but I've been procrastinating and now I'm really out of time. In five minutes I'll be signing out, getting in a cab, then a bus.... then I'll be gone. There are no words...

kaleidoscopic breathing exercise

This is actually a sneaky backdated post - I'm currently sat in a lovely air conditioned hotel room in Massachusetts, contemplating the crazy road trip ahead, though more on that later. I know I was pretty awful over the last 6 weeks in terms of updating my blog, mostly because I knew every post would bring me closer to the end. Some pretty exciting stuff happened though, so I'll give you a retrospective selection of the highlights.

Some weeks ago now, I was taken out for a posh dinner and then to see one Amy Winehouse live at the Highline Ballroom. She was skinny, mouthy, covered in tattoos and had some seriously scary hair, but the girl can certainly sing. I had a great time, felt very weird about hearing a north London accent after so long surrounded by New Yorkers, went home and woke up the next morning to write a brilliant paper on William Blake.

If anything - and I know it sounds a bit lame, but bear with me - this semester has been characterised by my academic success. That might be a bit pre-emptive given that I only have one of 5 grades back so far (A+ at 98% ta very much) but for the first time since... well, I started uni pretty much, I've been keeping up with the reading, studying for tests, and turning in papers on time. I haven't pulled a single all nighter (though admittedly I've done some pretty hardcore essay sessions, including the last one where I wrote 4500 words in 9 hours) and I'm really hoping this is a sign of things to come. But back to the interesting stuff...

I've been hitting the poetry slams pretty hard over the last four months, and the two most exciting nights were undoubtedly the final, which lasted 4 hours (what!) till 1am, and seeing the slampapi himself, Marc Smith who totally rocked my world! Even though I was a bit of a loser and didn't go and speak to any of my favourites before I left (Chad Anderson, who I am a little bit in love with, Jeanann, Taylor Mali, Shappy, the list goes on...) Urbana was a huge part of my New York experience as well as seriously boosting my mental health. If I ever (fingers and toes crossed) move back to NYC I am determined to at least get my arse up in front of the open mic... good times!
I've been getting some other culture and stuff in too - including trips to the Brooklyn Museum and Botanic Gardens, and a return to the Museum of Natural History, which has a fantastic Human Evolution display. I got to revisit all of my favourite bits of studying at Oxford, but wasn't nostalgic for the place at all. I have finally reached a point where so many wonderful things have happened that might have never happened if I hadn't decided to leave... well, what-ifing no longer seems to have any point. I'm happy with the way things are, and I wouldn't change them if I could, accept maybe to get myself back to New York! Besides, I was completely in love with the classes I took this semester, and would much rather be visiting museum displays on human evolution than writing papers on it. But anyway... The Brooklyn Museum had an amazing feminist gallery, which had some really interesting stuff on gender and transgender experience, which probably stuck in my mind after writing about 'Writen on the Body,' which I recommend to all and sundry. The narrator's gender is never revealed to the reader, so you really question all your assumptions about gender and relationships... In other news, the botanic gardens were pretty awesome too!



I've been spending plenty of time just trapsing around the city, falling in love with the skyline (though I'm the first to admit that having horizons again is pretty exciting) and discovering randomness. A bit like this rooftop public garden right around the corner from Grand Central, in the shadow of the Chrysler Building and overlooking 3rd Ave. The city is packed with hidden places like this, making walking to and from school quite the adventure.

There's also the everyday magic.... like my beautiful girl Kassie, shown here in post Phantom of the Opera craziness at Planet Hollywood - a pretty awesome night all told. Kassie and I have shared several fantastic drunken adventures, countless movies, and exchanged stories about our less than conventional families. Though I'm sad not all of my friends were around for the second semester, I'm thrilled that I got the chance to get to know Kassie better, she's a fantastic, strong, independent woman who has listened to me rant about Grey's at great length and shared my insatiable love of diners. Incidentally, Kass worked at the wonderful 71 Iriving, a coffeehouse frequented by none other than...

...Mr Rufus Wainwright, who performed for free at our local Barnes & Noble. Part of the beauty of New York is that there's always something happening, and often on your very doorstep. The doorstep of campus happens to be Central Park, which is to this day my favourite piece of New York.



This is the inscription on the side of the main campus building, fitting given that I studying Emerson in my first semester. It says "We are of different opinions at different hours, but we always may be said to be at heart on the side of truth". I like it, probably moreso in the knowledge that Emerson wasn't big on grand external theories of truth, but more interested in everyone figuring out their own version.

My favourite reading place - 7th floor skywalk.

Bethesda Fountain, Central Park. Right on the bank of the boating lake is a weeping willow, under which I spent some of the most peaceful hours of my whole life, reading, thinking and just chilling out. Hopefully I'll get to go back there one day, but I think the peace I found in New York (a little ironic given what a crazy hectic place it can be) is something I'm going to take with me for a long time yet.


I could go on for a lot longer, but really I'm busy getting excited about the next adventure, and if this year has taught me anything, it's that the rest of my life can be as exciting a journey as this time has been.

Spring Break, what?!

After a few weeks of paper writing, exam taking, book reading insanity, I was ready for a break. I hadn't done anything seriously city based in some time, and after a few days of intense R&R I was ready to take on New York, with my long time amigo (and let's face it, boss) Amina who was visiting for the Easter break. I'll try and get down everything we did, but dude, it was a crazy week and I'm hard pressed to remember it all!

On the Wednesday, Ami flew into JFK (late thankfully, as I was too...) and I brought her into the heart of the city, which was at that point experiencing weather that usually makes me homesick - downpours. After telling Amina that weather would undoubtedly be reasonable and she needn't bring a heavy coat, it snowed. Twice. Thanks guys, thanks a bunch.

Dazed and confused at the airport. This is a prime example of the famous Amina "picture face". She never, ever flashes any teeth, so I keep overcompensating. Yikes...

After a salad, a nap, and of course, some pizza with weirdo Italian mafia guys watching us, we headed to Mo Pitckin's House of Satisfaction to an event I'd wanted to see for months - Reverend Jen's Anti Slam. Set up in opposition to the poetry slam, in which poets are judge out of 10 by members of the audience, at Reverend Jen's you get a 10 whatever you do. Which means people do anything. And I mean anything... I think Amina was slightly traumatised by the nudity, but appreciated that we were referred to as "the hot broads in the back". A truely random New York experience, and in the East Village, truely the global home of insane performance.

Mmmmm... mafia pizza!

The East Village at night. Scary? I've seen worse...

Thursday was a bit more conventional - Amina wanted to shop, so we hit up Lexington and Fifth Avenue. Though the hour I spent in Abercrombie and Fitch nearly made me homicidal (no natural lighting, thumping music, and - I shit you not - all employes are models who will pose for photos with shoppers) I did get a pair of sale jeans fro GAP... so I can hardly complain about capitalistic urges.

Amina fell in love with the Levi's man, I pointed out there was a bit of a height difference...
How you know I'm great tour guide? This is FAO Scharwz, New York's (lame) answer to Hamleys - but this keyboard is from Big - you know, Tom Hanks? Dodgy 80 kids film? You know....


What? I'm mature...



We didn't even go in, I think the sign was already more than we could afford (morally. Or something.)

After some intense shopping, we rushed home and rushed back out to the Stanton Social - a posh restaurant, where else but the Lower East Side. Dinner was in honour of our third Hounslownian Mehreen, who just turned 22 (hah! so nice to be the baby again). We were exhausted, and by the time we got home Amina pretty much colapsed and a night out was postponed... I should have known she was conserving her strength for 5th Avenue!

I took full advantage of being the baby...

...while everyone else acted like grown ups. It will always be this way guys, even when you'e 43 and I'm 42. Just you wait...

Friday was another intense day of shopping, starting in the part of town I am not generally overfond off - Chinatown. You cannot go there when it's not heaving, and I can usually only take about 20 minutes...

...which is why I'm wearing sunglasses, despite that fact that it was snowing.
Amina loved Chinatown, and continued to love the shopping on


We trekked waaaay uptown, with brief stop off for the cube at Astor Place (see the video I took while Dad was visiting) a visit to The Strand (18 miles of books my arse) and then back up to 5th. Determined to get a bit of culture in, we dumped the bags at home, and ventured out to the free evening at MoMA.

Astor Place

Gandhi at Union Square


A random bit of the original Berlin Wall, a couple of blocks before MoMA. Why? I have no idea...

Some art... and if I have have to talk about the nature of art ever again, someone's gonna get knocked out with Duchamp's 'Fountain'

We wandered home via Times Square - three times, Amina, three times you made me take you to that tourist abomination. I would like to prove myself a New Yorker right now by professing my hatred for that bloody place. Maybe its ok on a postcard, but it's such an arse to trek through... ahem. Anyway, that evening we went out on the town - the East Village of course - for some groovy disco action. Look how cute we are... is there any doubt we had a good time? I think not, especially at venues with such names as 'No Malice Palace'. More tour guide points to me!

Sideways... by the way, Amina will attest to the fact my hair looks far darker in photos, damned flash!

Somehow, despite my best efforts, we were back on 5th Avenue the next day, for those tourist magnets, the Rockafella, the Disney Store, Grand Central and my favourite, Byrant Park. Another trip to Times Square - yes, it does look stupid during the day, doesn't it? - a glance at Macy's and the Empire State and then home (via the Flatiron) for a breather.

It's my arty photo of some reflections... sort of...

Bryant Park

We collapsed for a few hours, and then trekked out again, cabbing this time to Greenwhich to see Gutenberg! The Musical! for which I had discount tickets (cos I'm cool like that). It's a musical about two guys presenting their ridiculous idea for a musical, playing all 30 roles with the help of baseball caps with character's names printed on. It sounds silly, and indeed it was, but also very funny, and a nice spoof of musicals - I was suprised to find I'd now seen enough musicals to get the in jokes. Another late night's partying back on the East Side meant a late start for the next day's crazy wanderings... this time Central Park, the Met and that NSE favourite, Asssscat at the UCB. The Met was its usual, fanastic self - I'm determind to spend a day there before I come home - though Central Park looked a bit sad in the freezing weather. We wandered down to Columbus Circle and caught the train to Chealsea. Assscat was awesome - I love the NYC version above and beyond the LA one, great though it was.

Half arsedly climbing trees across the nation...

After queueing (er I mean, standing in line) for bloody hours, we collapsed at home in the warm. I could hardly believe it when Monday rolled around, and started to panic that we'd never finish the grand tour... luckily Easter Monday was beautiful. We headed downtown to Greenwich to see Washington Square Park and have lunch at the mental Jekyll and Hyde restaurant, where you are attended to by a mental butler and the spooky wall decorations occaisionally burst into song. I made Amina look at some more famous stuff - the gay sculptures at Christopher Park, a wander through Tribeca to Ground Zero (where we quietly exchange conspiracy theories, weird the things that place brings out it people) and on to Battery Park and the Statue of Liberty.

A rare grin! Mwahaha, I've cracked her!

We went back up town for the obligatory trip up the Empire State - I sat this one out, reading in Starbucks no less - but Amina waiting for three hours and got some pretty spanky pictures.

Town

Uptown

Downtown

That night was the final trip to Times Square to watch Blades of Glory, the new silly Will Farrell movie with Amy Poehler - who we had seen the previous night at Assscat. Once again, my coolness was astronomical. Knackered, we went home for the last time. The next day was again sunny, so we rushed around taking in Brooklyn Bridge, Hunter College's famous skywalks, Serendipity III (of movie fame) rounded off by a Max Brenner chocolate fondue, before waiting for the Supershittle. Which was, true to tradition, an hour late. A fantastic week, all in all, though by the end of it I was wondering if I'd need a spring break from my spring break... Lots of love to Amina who put up with my grumbling for a whole week and took a big ol' bag of my stuff home. Love, if you don't like any of the photos up, well, er, tough!

LA Snapshots

Desperate to see my kids and sneak in an early spring break, I booked a flight to LA for the weekend to reunite the west coast gang - Stacey, James, Varsi, Jess and the Rosh Bear.

After an early flight - this time with food and movies, Casino Royale woot! - I arrived at LAX a few hours before anyone could get me. Rather than hang out in the lobby, I installed myself in the sun and had a picnic on the only bit of grass I could find, which happened to by the middle of a roundabout. The girls spotted me reading and attacked...

After they were done jumping on me, we all got in James' car - where we spent a good deal of the trip having an awesome time with dancing, kareoke and much cuddling....

Or just doing the cockroach...

James, our local LA tour guide, drove us everywhere while constantly worrying about what I was going to eat. Because there are no vegetarians in LA. Yeah James, sure. I actually ate really well, it was a nice break from the daily diet of noodles and pizza...

What's that growing out of the side of your head, Vars? erm.... Jessica?

Us being cute, somewhere off Mulholland Drive.
The small people attacking me again

Views from the Getty

Art makes us sleepy....

Picnicking on a random hill.





The cover to the boys new cd... Varkatal, was it?

More cuddling back in the car

Stacey serenades the Rosh bear

Back at James' place, DJ Stubby shows us his mad skillz and VarKatal is born!

Some award show happens here... the Academy Awards methinks?

Some nutters on an escalator in Hollywood.

After a long term love affair with the UCB in New York, we went to check out the second cousin in LA. As Jess and I repeatedly said, it was like, a parallel universe duuude!

After the surreal alternate reality ASSSCAT show, we went here. Aparently its famous or something. I sulked and ate comfort pie, which was actually really good.

We had planned to go to the beach, but sadly craptastic weather meant a detour to Universal City. We acted like crazy people and had fun anyway.

Stacey got a new do.

I love these girls.

But I will fight to the death(ish) for shotgun

We compromised. Stacey and I actually rode double shotgun when we were in Portland. Very illegal, but also hilarious.

Climbing a tree sideways

We're really just a bit silly. I love these guys so much, and even though this trip flew by, it was a gift to see them all again. I don't know when the next time will be which is sad... the last few years have been filled with moving around, which has allowed me to meet so many fantastic people. I refuse to say goodbye to anyone, only see you soon because I'm always hopeful that I will. Next time might well be on home turf, so Rosh and I better bust out the London A-Z and start planning!

P.S. Thanks to everyone whose photo's I stole. Love you guys xxx